For this data conference taking place in Africa and which will contain as one of its major themes the issues around data for the sustainable development goals and data for innovation, we felt it was important to avoid the clash with the UN Forum. Similarly, the use of earth observation and remote sensing data will be an important theme in International Data Week and GEO (including major flagships, the Data Sharing Working Group and AfriGEOSS) is an important partner of the organisers and was a sponsor of the first International Data Week in Denver in 2016.

The organisers regret any difficulties this may cause to our community and participants. However, as we still have 11 months to go before the event, we felt the date could be changed without excessive inconvenience and that it was important to act as good citizens and partners and - to the extent possible - avoid direct competition with related events.